


Future Vision

by twinewool (colouredwool)



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Brief mention of death/injury in a vision, F/F, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-14 00:40:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4543566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colouredwool/pseuds/twinewool
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Future vision is both a blessing and a curse: After facing a dangerous mission, Garnet deals with the emotional after-effects of her power.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Future Vision

**Author's Note:**

> I've had the outline of this scene in my head ever since Future Vision aired, and I finally got round to writing it out. Garnet's (and Sapphire's) future vision has always fascinated me, and I can't help imagine the side effects to having such a powerful ability.
> 
> T rating = nothing sexual, but certainly sensual intimacy between Garnet and Amethyst in the latter half. Also some brief mentions of injury/death/violence in a vision.

'Steven, keep still! You're filthy!'

Pearl's chastisement falls on deaf ears as Steven continues his re-enactment of their latest mission. His arms fly up excitedly and Pearl dodges them with a tut as she attempts to wipe the dust and grime from his face. They've only been home five minutes and Steven has yet to calm down, still running on adrenaline and the giddy excitement of the day, happy and loud.

'And then you came flying out of the air and smashed the rock in two with your spear, and it was AWESOME!'

'Steven you could have been seriously hurt!' Pearl protests, 'that mission was far more dangerous than we expected.' She dabs at a scrape on his elbow and sighs. 'I'm just thankful Garnet spotted that rock fall in time, or who knows what could have happened.'

'Hey! Our tough little guy made it,' Amethyst says and punches Steven on the arm with a grin. He grins back and laughs as she catches him in a headlock, scrubbing his hair.

'Noooo!'

Amethyst laughs and glances towards Garnet, expecting to see that fond expression of amusement on her face. Instead, she sees that Garnet hasn't even moved from the warp pad yet. The bubbled gems still hover expectantly above her palms, her expression blank behind her visor.

'Uh, you okay G?'

The movement is barely noticeable, but Garnet shivers. Her limbs unfreeze and the bubbles warp away with a whine.

'Yes,' she answers simply, and without another word, she turns and heads through the temple door.

Amethyst frowns. The mission had been a little dangerous, but it had been the standard drill otherwise. Fight off a bunch of corrupted gems that were getting too near human territory and bubble them for safety. Usually Garnet would stay in the house after a mission like this, take her time to see that Steven is fed and happy and tuck him into bed.

Steven squirms free from Amethyst's arms and she snaps back to attention. He runs away laughing and she yells after him, chasing him around the room whilst Pearl rolls her eyes and neatly avoids their rowdy game. For a moment though, Amethyst glances back at the temple door and worries about the way Garnet had looked standing there. Less like her usual moments of still, serious contemplation, and more like she had been frozen in fear. Locked in place by something only she could sense and see.

 

................................... 

 

As the temple door closes the sound of Steven's laughter is abruptly silenced, and Garnet flinches a little at the loss.

The room in front of her is an empty void, blank and featureless - and most importantly - only accessible to the others if she wishes it to be. She can feel the nervous tremble begin, starting first in the center of her gems. It travels along her arms, then out across her body, increasing in strength as it goes and she squeezes her fists to try and stop the reaction. But it's useless. Her vision begins to track backwards, dragging itself to alternative timelines, other possibilities and maybes and could-have-beens that didn't happen, that never came to pass, but they could have, _they_ _could have_...

Future vision comes with a price. Despite the advantage it brings, the emotional aftermath of her power has always taken its toll. Garnet (and Sapphire long before) have viewed futures that are too awful to voice. The horror of death, of injury, of the destruction and loss of those she loves - not just once, but over and over again - a million times, in a million different ways. For the most part she can dismiss the worst of them and concentrate on the futures that will move her towards her goal. Her efficiency as a fighter and commander depend upon it. But bottling all that emotion up has always had its repercussions, and over time the pressure builds up, and up, and up...until it has nowhere to go but out.

Today it seems, she has reached her limit.

Her vision flashes and she is no longer seeing the here and now - and neither is she seeing the future. Only the past. Alternative pasts layered up one after the other, the worst of her visions from today's mission racing through her mind, unfiltered and unstoppable.

_Pearl, one false move as she faces off the corrupted gem before her, is smashed against the cliff side. Her physical form breaks and she is forced to retreat into her gem, only to be shattered by the enemy's next strike, smashed into thin, pearlescent splinters, each shard broken far beyond the power of healing tears._

_Amethyst, overcome with rage, heads into battle with reckless ferocity, punishing her physical form as she tries to shift beyond her capabilities and resist the crushing grasp of the monster gem. Her struggle only makes her weaker, an easy target for claws to chip and dig into the center of her chest, lock in, clench, and crack her gem with a sickening crunch._

_And Steven. Steven, out of reach by mere meters (too far for her hands to save), is thrown under the weight of crushing rocks, defenseless as his shield sputters apart on impact. His screams are piercing, the horror all-consuming as his pain rings out, echoing against the walls of the cliff, the blood from his broken body flowing into the ground,_ and it's too late _, his human body is failing,_ too much blood _, and there is only awful, numb silence in her mind as the darkness hits._

The trembling carries all through Garnet's body now, her physical form a mass of jitters. There are tears streaming down her face, but she is too overwhelmed to notice.

Fury and rage always come first. She lets them swallow her up. The fear, the helplessness, the guilt and frustration. She channels it into her arms, into her fists as she smashes the crystalline structures summoned up by the room. The illusions shatter on impact as the visions in her mind overwhelm her, and she shouts with each punch, again, and again, and again. She physically aches, and it is both cathartic and exhausting to power through the emotions that engulf her.

The flame burns, her fists burn, and the mindless desire to destroy consumes her, her sense of time lost to the chaos.

Eventually the landscape of crystal structures begins to subside, slowing in its regeneration until only one pillar is left standing. It falls, and Garnet watches as it shatters into fragments around her. Body heaving, straining from overuse, she collapses to the ground too, and her gauntlets disarm, leaving her gems open to the air as she stares out into the black void of the room.

The visions have settled now, and although not gone completely, they're no longer distressing. Just vague, further possibilities that didn't come to pass.

She lets them go.

Now there is stillness. Numbness. An absence of feeling where there was once too much. Sometimes the blankness is almost as all-consuming as the rage, a hole into which she falls and falls and fears she will never climb out of.

So she waits in the blackness. As always.

Until there comes the quiet outpouring of tears.

Garnet remembers when Rose would search her out when it reached this point. Come find her in this room with her strange, uncanny instinct for knowing when the rage was over and it was safe to slip inside. Sometimes they would talk. Sometimes they would sit in the quiet, Rose's arms around her, safe and secure, a body to lean on as she wept. Sometimes Rose would bring her back to the others, refusing to let those tears fall at all.

She misses Rose badly at times like these.

The tears flow. Time passes.

A door appears in the void of the room, and a figure cautiously steps inside.

‘Hey, G...’

Garnet sits up slowly as Amethyst approaches, summoning her visor to cover her wet eyes, feeling exposed. She sees the concern written across Amethyst’s face, her features pinched.

‘Was it that bad this time?’ the younger gem asks quietly.

Garnet lets Amethyst sit down beside her and feels the comforting gesture of a hand on her thigh, the soft brush where Amethyst's long hair settles against her arm.

‘It only _could_ have been bad.'

Before Amethyst can speak again, Garnet scoops the smaller gem up and pulls her into an embrace, burying her face into Amethyst's thick mane of hair. Amethyst is surprisingly docile at the sudden handling and sinks into Garnet's arms without comment. They stay together in silence, the physical closeness easing something in Garnet that words can't.

Amethyst can't stay quiet for long however.

‘Was it Steven?’ she asks after a little while. Garnet keeps her eyes closed and feels Amethyst sit up in her arms. ‘You sometimes get like this when missions get...dangerous around him.’

A rush of pain runs through Garnet's chest at the mention of Steven, and she represses a humourless laugh. She can't burden the others with her dark visions. That's always been rule number one. It would only make them fearful or guilty, and Garnet does not need to divulge the horror in order to ease her fear. To focus on the present is enough - the comfort of Amethyst in her arms, the underlying rhythm of their gems syncing as they sit close to one another, the soft pulse of Amethyst's core radiating out to meld into Garnet's own twin beats. It's sweet and comforting.

‘It hurts when any of you are harmed in my visions,’ Garnet says. ‘Today was just tougher than usual. I'll be all right.’

Amethyst reaches out and covers Garnet's hand where it is wrapped around her middle. ‘If you say so G.’

'I do.'

Amethyst lets out a short huff of laughter, and shifts around so that she's facing the other gem. Her hands reach up and wipe away the dried tear tracks from Garnet's cheeks and carefully, waiting first for a nod of consent, removes her visor.

'Let's cheer you up,' Amethyst says with a smile, and brings their faces together.

The kiss is gentle.

Such an odd thing to do to press mouths together, but it was a strange habit of affection they had picked up whilst living amongst humans. It was nice sometimes. It was nice now.

Garnet pulls Amethyst's body closer so that she can feel the press of Amethyst's gem against her chest. She feels its pulse, deep and slow, and Amethyst hums into the kiss, fumbling for Garnet's hands. Their fingers intertwine and their palms press together, first the right (Ruby), then the left (Sapphire), and each gem softly flutters in their shared rhythm.

It's intimate to be so connected.

The kisses trail off and Amethyst keeps humming, a low, continuous note that almost transforms into a purr. Garnet thinks about pulling back, stopping it here - she's still a little shaken from her emotional fallout today - but Amethyst's song invites her to stay. To indulge and wrap herself up in this sensory pleasure a little longer.

She begins to hum too, much deeper than Amethyst, and the two harmonise easily. At first their voices simply call and respond to one another, a sweet exchange of phrases until the rhythms combine into something more, something layered and complex that runs between them. It morphs swiftly, becoming a melody that resonates from the centre of their gems, striking them aglow, the vibration and pulse of their cores swept up in the music, melting into one another before moving out of time again.

It's fun, chasing each other’s melody whilst their hands meander across their bodies in tandem. Fingers draw lines of sensitivity across bare skin, tuck into folds of flesh, caress curves and soft rolls, squeeze muscle and press into all the other sweet spots their physical forms afford them. Fingers gently brush through hair and Amethyst smiles into her song, enjoying the feel of hands running down her back, tangling cautiously with the long strands of her hair. Amethyst sinks her fingers into Garnet's hair in turn, and gently draws out the tight curls, winding them around her fingers. Garnet shivers and her song deepens a little whilst Amethyst smirks, reveling in Garnet's stutter as she releases each coil of hair, watching them spring back into place.

Quietly, Garnet's voice shifts and her song trails slowly to a stop.

She opens her eyes. 'That's...enough.'

Amethyst lets her humming sink into silence too, and lays a lingering kiss on Garnet's jaw. 'Yeah?'

'Yeah.'

Garnet sighs. All across her physical form her skin is tingling. She feels wonderfully relaxed, the physical tension that had wound through her before, charged by her distress and pain, has been let loose and free.

'Thank you,' she breathes.

Amethyst shrugs, but her cheeks are flushed. 'No probs.'

They get up from the floor, and Garnet realises that the room is no longer the blank void it once was. It is lit with warm, purple and red light from the crystalline walls. It sets Amethyst aglow, and she resists the urge to reach out again, to trace the curve of Amethyst's cheek that shimmers in the half-light.

Amethyst looks up and shifts awkwardly on her feet, teetering on saying something. Garnet waits, knowing that with patience, Amethyst will come out with it.

'I...I get that you need your privacy or whatever,' the younger gem eventually says, 'I ain't saying I want to mess up whatever you've got to do to, y'know. Make things right again when you get like this.' Her hands are fixed on her hips, but they twitch, as if itching to fidget. She looks up at Garnet from underneath the fall of her fringe. 'But...you don't have to hide away. I know Rose used to be here for you back then, but we're here for you too, you know?'

Garnet clenches a fist, suddenly nervous. Amethyst slowly reaches out and takes each of her hands, uncurling them gently.

'Me and Pearl...we wanna help. 'Cos we care about you and you don't have to ride this out alone every time. We can sit with you when it gets rough.' She ghosts her fingertips over Garnet's gems, face shyly turned away. 'O-or be with you afterwards. Like now.'

Garnet isn't sure what to say. Part of her rebels against letting her guard down, making herself vulnerable in a way that might affect her strength as a leader. She needs to put distance between herself and the others if she's to remain the figure of guidance and authority they need.

But another part of her wants to take this offer for what it is. An expression of love and care she sorely wishes for. She may never be truly alone, not with Ruby and Sapphire at the core of her being. But sometimes...Garnet gets lonely. Sometimes Garnet needs someone to lean on.

'Thank you, Amethyst. I'll...think about it.' It's the best she can answer for now.

Amethyst smiles anyway. 'Okay.'

Garnet smiles back. Then she reaches up, and summons her visor.

‘I think it’s time to head back,’ she announces.

Amethyst nods, and with a sweeping bow, summons a door back to the Temple entrance. Slipping a hand into Garnet’s own, Amethyst pulls her through the door and they walk back into the house, where day has darkened into night and the gentle snores of a sleeping Steven welcome them back.


End file.
